Steeler is the most accomplished horse in the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy Stakes on Saturday at Doncaster in England, but it is the once-started maiden winner Kingsbarns who moved the ante-post betting markets all week.
Led by the outstanding 3-year-old Pierro and the improving older horse Green Moon, Saturday’s $3 million Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Australia has drawn an outstanding field of 14 in the country’s weight-for-age championship.
As far as Frankel knows, nothing is yet fundamentally altered in his life. Sunday, the day after his career-ending victory in the Champion Stakes, win No. 14 without a defeat, Frankel was back in his stall at trainer Henry Cecil’s Warren Place stables in Newmarket, and there he will stay for the next several days.
Excelebration, doing his best to escape Frankel's shadow, won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, his second consecutive Group 1.
Frankel completed a brilliant undefeated career winning for the 14th time in the Champion Stakes on Saturday at Ascot in England, staking his claim as one of the best racehorses ever with a 1 3/4-length victory over the top-class French invader Cirrus des Aigles.
Dunaden, the 2011 Melbourne Cup winner, returned from a summer in the Northern Hemisphere and impressively captured the Group 1 Caulfield Cup on Saturday in Australia, rallying from 16th to beat Alcopop by a half-length.
More rain fell at already sodden Ascot Racecourse on Friday afternoon, prompting the first statements of concern from the connections of Frankel, the undefeated superstar who is entered to race Saturday in the Champion Stakes.
Excelebration will be a strong favorite to win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, his first start in more than two months. The break between races should have Excelebration a fresh horse if, as expected, his connections attempt a QE II-Breeders’ Cup Mile double this fall.
The Champion Stakes at Ascot on Saturday could be Frankel’s sternest challenge as he makes just his second start in a race longer than one mile and likely the final race of his career.
It was raining Wednesday in south-central England, and as far as meteorologists could tell, it was going to continue to rain all the way through Saturday’s Champions Day card at Ascot, when Frankel is all but certain to make the final start of an already legendary career.
